“You say ‘Patriarchy’ like it’s a bad thing,” I said. “It is,” he replied. “The age of Toxic Masculinity has come to an end.” “Indicting masculinity because toxic males exist is like blaming pollution on oxygen.” “I don’t know what that means.” “Then ask your Dad.” I am exploring the mental database of distant memories…
Category: Family
PONDERING WHILE WANDERING – SUMMER VACATION 2018 | Part Three: When in Vermont…
Our visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum lasted a couple of hours at most. We wandered back into the postcard-worthy mountain village of Stockbridge, found a little general store that made the best homemade chicken salad sandwich north of Donya’s kitchen, ate our sandwiches in the car in the pouring rain, and planned our trip…
PONDERING WHILE WANDERING – SUMMER VACATION 2018 | Part Two: Norman Rockwell, America! Lost and Found…
After a long and mostly sleepless night, Donya and I woke Sunday morning surprisingly refreshed and resolved to make the most of the next seven days. I had mapped out the places we wanted to visit. First up, Stockbridge, MA, and the Norman Rockwell Museum. America! Lost and Found… Norman Rockwell has always been a…
My Faithful Valentine: a story of love
Last night Donya asked if I remembered what I gave her on that first Valentine’s Day we spent together. I did, sort of. I remembered I gave her a blouse or a dress or some such. (I am sure the mountainous, volatile, protective Tommy Weir was thrilled that the big-eared kid with the silk shirts…
The gospel according to Hank …and Holly
I grew up with a Bible in my hand and big chunks of it systematically planted in my heart and mind. For that, I am grateful. Every sermon I ever heard about the poor, wandering, lost sinner sounded eerily like this: I’m a rollin’ stone all alone and lost For a life of sin, I…
The 60-Year Wedding Anniversary: A Milestone for the Mighty in Love
Tommy and Mary Weir, my in-laws(for 37 years and counting), are celebrating 60 years of marriage this very day. SIXTY! YEARS. This is a milestone not many of us will pass.You gotta get it right if you wanna get it done. To make it 60, you have to marry fairly young and really well and…
Dear Mom, Thanks for the benefit of the doubt
I woke up this morning thinking about my mother…Mom, I call her. I think it was the residual thoughts of a dream I dreamt, but it slipped into the recesses of subconscious and disappeared in the fog of fading memory. I can no longer confirm that I dreamed of her or dreamed at all. At…
A Father’s Day Remembrance: Little Granddad – the dad who almost wasn’t
I have honored the dads in my life just about every year around Father’s Day. My own father, William David Strother, died at age 51, when I was 30 and left a million memories of my childhood and a million more what-ifs behind. My wife’s father, Thomas Henry Weir, now 80 and still spry, still…
18…Again – A note to my firstborn on the 18th anniversary of her 18th birthday
A few days ago, my ever-so-curious and talented son-in-law Edward Frys discovered a long-forgotten and deeply buried treasure of floppy disks bearing assorted thing I had written and saved over the years. I had not seen them or anything on them in 15 years or so. Among the digital cobwebs on these vintage computer disks…
A Handmaid’s Tale: Looking into the “Martha Syndrome”
Confession: This has nothing to do with the sordid tale of the popular book or mini-series by this name, as the subtitle of the article surely reveals. Instead, I use “handmaid” as it was commonly used in Bible times as that of a female servant. Moreover, I use it the way traditional writersused “man” or…